This is an interesting film. There are times when I’m not quite sure it lives up to its intriguing premise, but the characters keep me engaged.
Novelist-turned-professor Lola gets more than she bargained for when she’s asked to contribute an article on the Spanish Civil War. She writes about Rafael Sánchez Mazas, a writer and founder of Spain’s Fascist party, who escaped an attempted execution, and a reader contacts her to note that Sánchez Mazas wasn’t the only prisoner who got away that day. Lola finds herself obsessed with the story of Sánchez Mazas and the other “Forest Friends” who ran from the firing squad, digging deeper to try and learn more.
The story of someone diving into a single moment in history is usually an interesting one for me. It’s especially neat to see Lola become so engrossed in this subject, because at first, she can’t even say why it matters so much to her. The reader who approaches her about it wonders if she’s researching for a new book, but she’s largely given up novel writing, having struggled to maintain her early success. Her investigation isn’t necessarily for anything, but still, she needs to know. So she chases down leads, searching for living witnesses and visiting the site of the failed execution, imagining that she’s back there herself.
She’s most haunted by the notion that another soldier happened upon Sánchez Mazas when he ran into the forest, but the other man let him go. Another character argues that Lola is simply searching for a moment of “heroism” within a brutal war, chasing answers that won’t give her the satisfaction she wants. And there are times when Lola doubts the investigation herself—when the trail goes cold, when she doesn’t have enough confidence in her writing to do anything with this story—but something keeps pulling her on.
Other than Diego Luna, I’m not familiar with any of the cast, but Ariadna Gil does a fine job as Lola. She’s a character who’s often holding herself back and forging ahead, both at the same time, and that’s a neat dynamic to see within her understated performance. And I really like María Botto, who plays a new friend of Lola’s named Conchi. There’s a lot going on with this character and I won’t get into it all here, but I like her role within the story. Conchi is a psychic who knew Lola’s late father, and while she’s definitely crushing on Lola at minimum, she also believes more in Lola’s potential book than Lola does herself, urging her not to give up on the story.
Luna plays Gastón, a new student in a university class that Lola teaches. He’s from Mexico, but he has roots in Spain stemming back to the Civil War. While Lola pursues her investigation, he’s conducting one of his own, trying to trace his family history. He’s crushing on Lola too—she’s largely given up on romance, but everyone seems to want her! Apart from that, though, Gastón shows himself to be a thoughtful young man. When he shows Lola some of the photos he’s found from the Civil War, he remarks, “Could be today, couldn’t it? The same people always lose.”
While it’s a relatively small role, it’s a pivotal one. Lola’s life as a professor is mostly divorced from her investigation into Sánchez Mazas, the Forest Friends, and the unknown soldier, but Gastón is the only one of her students that we get to know. And even though he stays confined to the university scenes, his interactions with Lola are still relevant to her search through history.
Recommend?
In General – I think I would. Again, I’m a sucker for this sort of premise, and I enjoyed the major characters.
Diego Luna – Maybe. It’s not a big role, but he does well with it.
Warnings
Violence, sexual content, language, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.
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